Southampton's AccelerComm joins Open Compute Project for 5G innovation

Southampton-based 5G IP specialist, AccelerComm, has announced its involvement with the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), as a Community Member. As part of this collaboration, AccelerComm will be a key partner on the Evenstar modular Open RAN Radio Unit (RU) reference design project — an initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of Open Radio Access Networks (RANs) through innovative and efficient technologies.

The company's specialised IP for Equalisation and Estimation will be implemented into the RU as part of the Evenstar modular reference platform. This means significant performance improvements for the IP, enabling it to deliver increased spectral efficiency for both the RU and the Distributed Unit (DU). It will also meet the compliance standards of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP)'s Open RAN.

The Evenstar Project is a collaborative effort driven by the need for simplified, flexible, and efficient RAN technologies. The specifications of the project align with both 3GPP and O-RAN, and it works hand-in-hand with the TIP OpenRAN Project Group. What began as an initiative by Meta has since transitioned to the OCP in June 2023 after three years of focused development led by Meta's engineers and their ecosystem partners.

AccelerComm's role in this initiative centres around addressing bottlenecks that limit the throughput, latency, and spectral efficiency of 5G. By developing strategies to mitigate the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength, the objective is to optimise the performance of 5G radio access networks. This improvement in spectral efficiency also comes with the added bonus of reducing the consumption of infrastructure equipment and operational power.

Commenting on the development, Will Brown, Terrestrial Networks Product Director at AccelerComm, emphasised the potential of open telecoms infrastructure development. He said, "Open approaches offer huge potential to catalyse 5G innovation, leveraging a broad ecosystem of specialist vendors collaborating to drive technical breakthroughs and developments. While the focus on interoperability is pronounced, these projects must also address system performance. We're excited to join OCP and explore how our acceleration IP can enhance the Evenstar project and maximise 5G radio performance."

Bijan Nowroozi, Chief Technology Officer of the Open Compute Project Foundation, expressed excitement about adding AccelerComm to the community. He stated, "The Evenstar project represents a significant milestone towards a truly open RAN, offering great benefits to the mobile operator community and end-users. The project's strength lies in the quality of its participants and their ability to deliver high-performance solutions that are cost-effective and easy to deploy. We eagerly anticipate the potential of AccelerComm's acceleration and optimisation IP to optimise the performance of this project."